Largest Solana treasury Forward Industries to tokenize stock using Superstate’s Opening Bell
Forward Industries (ticker FORD), the largest Solana digital asset treasury firm backed by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital, is looking to tokenize its shares using Superstate’s Opening Bell platform.The announcement on Monday comes on the heels of Galaxy (GLXY) becoming the first U.S. Nasdaq-listed company to issue shares on Solana, via Superstate, a financial technology startup founded by Robert Leshner, who previously created DeFi protocol Compound.It also comes amid rising interest in onchain equities and as firms like Kraken and Robinhood look to expand access to and the utility of U.S. and other global capital markets by issuing tokenized versions of popular stocks, including APPL and TSLA. Tokenized equities theoretically offer 24/7 trading, real-time settlement, and enhanced global liquidity."This partnership reflects the continued execution of our vision to make Forward Industries an onchain-first company, including tokenizing our equity directly on the Solana mainnet," said Kyle Samani, who was named Forward's chairman of the board.According to the announcement, Forward is working with Solana-based lending protocols Drift, Kamino, and Jupiter Lend to expand the functionality of it onchain FORD shares. Forward's token will be added as an eligible collateral option across these systems. The DAT firm previously announced plans to deploy funds into various DeFi protocols.Further, as part of the arrangement, Forward Industries "expects to take an equity stake in Superstate to further align interests and enable joint development of upcoming Superstate products," according to a press statement. Opening Bell, launched by Superstate in May, is a regulated onchain issuance platform enabling companies to issue tokenized public equity, initially using Solana. Galaxy, which recently uplisted onto the Nasdaq, tokenized its shares earlier this month.Multicoin, alongside Galaxy and Jump, led a $1.65 billion private placement in Forward in early September. The effort quickly became the largest SOL treasury firm by total holdings, surpassing the combined value of the next three-largest SOL DATs, DeFi Development Corp., Sharps Technology, and Upexi, according to The Block's Data Dashboard.Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.